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William Telfer was born in 2352 to Ryan and Julia Telfer, both doctors, in Encino, California. His mother, Julia, was especially overprotective of her son from an early age, as he was their only child. A side effect of his mother's overprotectiveness was a severe case of hypchondria that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

From an early age, William was interested in the sciences, particularly the biological sciences. His father encouraged him to pursue that course. He became interested in exobiology (no doubt influenced by his persistent hypochondria) at the age of fourteen. His father had been a former Starfleet Exobiologist until Julia became pregnant and he decided to continue his research from Earth at the FederationExobiological Research Laboratory in Encino, California.

In 2376 he was identified by Seven of Nine as one of three crewmembers deemed deficient in their performance, due to his ever present issues with hypochondria. He visited sickbay at least once a week, complaining of ailments of various kinds. He would be scanned by the Doctor and invariably nothing wrong would be found. Medicines and counseling were not effective tools with combating his hypochondria as he suffered from a severe aversion to them.

Thanks to a highly unorthodox plan of CaptainKathryn Janeway's, Telfer found himself on his first away mission on the Delta Flyer. When the away mission went wrong thanks to attacks by dark matter lifeforms, Telfer joined Crewman Celes Tal in remaining with the Flyer even when ordered to leave by Janeway.

During that same away mission Telfer found himself infected by a dark matter lifeform that took up residence inside his body. The organism later left him, making an agonizing exit from his body via his neck, after which it was killed by Harren. However, after the whole experience, Telfer found, to his great surprise, that he had been cured of his hypochondria. (VOY: "Good Shepherd")

His normal duties on Voyager involved working in the Exobiology Lab under the supervision of EnsignSamantha Wildman. Just prior to the Away Mission from Hell he participated in the first autopsy of a Heartless discovered on a drifting Vaadwaur fighter. Wildman was pleased with his work and ordered him to present it to Captain Janeway. (Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm)

He was especially close to Celes Tal, whom he assisted with her work in Astrometrics during many an all-nighter. He and Tal were known to frequently have meals together. His relationship with Celes never progressed beyond friendship and he was comfortable to keep it that way. He was a confidant regarding her attraction to Lieutenant j.g.Henry Kano, offering advice on the matter.

He regarding Kano as an older brother figure, becoming fond of the Search and Rescue operative's laid back and good natured manner. He frequently traded jibes with Kano about the latter's pride in his Australian heritage, and sometimes even cracked some Australian jokes with him.

He regarded Samantha Wildman as the big sister he never had. His work in the Exobiology Lab, minus his fear of away missions, was of good quality. Wildman attempted to help Telfer through his problems with away missions throughout his time on Voyager, but was unsuccessful. (Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm)